The invention relates to an ice making machine of the hollow cylinder type, more particularly to the sizing of the ice harvested therefrom.
An example of this type of ice making machine is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,228,202 issued Jan. 11, 1966 to R. J. Cornelius. The ice is formed within an ice making cavity in the form of cylinder and when harvesting is desired, the cylindrical ice sheet is forced through an opening in the top of the cylinder by internal force provided by a translating piston. As the ice leaves the cylinder it is forced against a plurality of fixed ice breaking fins, spaced around a circular ice breaking head thereby causing the ice to be broken in generally uniformly-sized flakes or pieces as it leaves the ice maker.
While this and other similar methods produce reasonably satisfactory ice, they have one general and important drawback: the size of the ice harvested is fixed in size; it cannot be altered.
Recent developments in cup vending machines provide for vending various size cups of liquid, as well as various types of liquid. These developments are creating requirements for ice making equipment to vend different sizes of harvested ice to provide a more enjoyable iced liquid. Currently the changing of harvested ice size requires the changing of the ice making device to a larger or smaller size unit.
For medical applications where ice size requirements are various, ice produced by standard ice making machines must be crushed prior to its use.
Thus, there is a continuing need for improved ice making machines and particular ice making machines which the size of the harvested ice can be selectively varied.